It's Dark Inside
by BarbaraChilde
Summary: Post season 6 elevator fic... Which has now decided to become more...
1. March 2013

**This was meant to be a fill to prompt but it became far too long for me to finish in the time allocated. The words were rain, ride, elevator, blackout, dress up, drunk. And my mind took me to an obvious place!**

**Very smutty as a warning. Please tell me if you enjoy, dear readers, as there may be more of this. There's a plot brewing in my mind but god only knows when I'll find the time to write it. And I know I should be concentrating on my other unfinished story but I'm waiting for a bit of inspiration (and discipline) to return for that.**

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Rain lashed the wall length windows that overlooked greater Manhattan, dimming the twinkling lights of the vast cityscape. The weather forecast had indicated storms, but Blair hadn't expected the second coming of the flood to decimate her first charity gala.

At least it matched her mood. The turnout had been abysmal. Blair felt her smile turn to a rictus as she tried to mingle with the small gathering, her laughter strained to even her own ears, her small talk banal and oversold.

The dress she had chosen was perfect for the role she was trying to play, a soft pink ruffled Marchesa designed to enhance and soften, though the truth be told, she only really felt comfortable in dark colours anymore. The boned bodice dug into her ribs, and though she had been well trained in the art of ignoring discomfort, all she wished to do was slide into her one pair of comfortable pyjamas and sequester herself in her penthouse. Turn the lights off and try to rediscover some kind of content through the eyes of Audrey.

But the compelling thought had to wait, at least until Blair had forced her charms on the select group she hosted. She held her glass to her lips, taking a sip as she looked speculatively around at the small crowd. It wasn't as select as she may have hoped. The only guests who held any influence, she already held in her pocket. The people she really wanted to impress had sent their most insincere apologies, using the most convenient weather as an excuse.

It was probably for the best that Chuck wasn't there, he was far better at alienation than ingratiation. Instead he traversed the globe, trying to shore up Bass industries while she was ensconced in the Upper East Side, waging a war of civility on her own. Even from the grave, Bart still managed to torment their existence and in the fallout after his death, investors and supporters both had left their sphere of acquaintance like rats from the proverbial ship. People had been looking at her out of the corners of their eyes for months and the speculation she saw there was enough to make her twitch. But she forced herself to smile and simper, swallowing the defensive words that just begged to be let loose.

Maintaining the facade made her achingly weary. Not because she wasn't used to pretence, but the lack of allies made her feel anchorless. It would have alleviated some tension to have a support, a solid shoulder at her back instead of a corner. But the only prop on hand was the abundant alcohol and Blair found herself drinking fast, gritting her teeth behind her frozen smile.

The one place that drew her was the empty spot by the unruly headed interloper at the bar. Everything about him was doubtful, the too long hair, the loose posture, the tapered fingers that traced the rim of his tumbler. But it made her feel almost relaxed to rest her eyes on him. Here at least was someone she didn't have to be obsequiously polite to.

"I don't know why you thought you might be welcome here." She hadn't meant to approach but her wilful feet had weaved a path across the floor to leave her standing awkwardly by his side.

"I'm very well, Waldorf, thank you for asking." Dan signalled the bar staff for another drink before raising his eyes to hers.

"I don't recall sending you an invitation."

"Serena asked me to come."

"And, of course, you do everything Serena says. Did neither of you notice the lack of the 'plus one' on her invite?"

"No, it didn't pass us by. But she's in LA and couldn't come. She's worried about you."

Blair looked to the ceiling. She'd had quite enough of concerned friends. "And that's why you've been sitting at the bar all night, without saying a word, although I concede you did me a favour by not mingling."

"And I said Serena is worried about you. Personally, I've got better things to think about."

She chewed at her lip. "So, your presence is more about the free liquor then?"

Dan raised his glass, swirling the dark liquid. "Apparently it's my only friend here."

"Come for Serena, stay for the booze?" Blair knew she should walk away, she was still angry at him, she was always angry at him. But the perverse enjoyment she always found in their engagement gave her the most pleasure she had found all evening.

"Come for the booze, stay for the booze." He gave a snort and downed the rest of the liquor, his hand a little unsteady as he placed the tumbler back on the bar

"You're drunk."

"As are you. You're slipping, Waldorf." She was tipsy, maybe swaying toward intoxication but she thought she had been hiding it well. His words just made her shoot him a withering look, before she belatedly left him to resume her role as the gracious hostess.

Blair felt Dan at her elbow again after the elevator had descended with the last of the guests. "Are you still here?"

"The storm's getting worse. I'm going to see you home."

"I don't..." Blair bit down on the words. She didn't have her usual driver and the idea of trying to hail a cab in this weather, in these shoes, was a vision of hell she wasn't quite prepared for. "I thought you never worried about me."

He smiled then, the dimple showing in his cheek as his teeth flashed. "I'm doing it for Serena."

It wasn't until the were in the elevator car that she let herself truly look at him. Dan's hair was perilously close to the line between alluring and absurd but the defined curve of his jaw was just as cutting as it had always been. She didn't drop her eyes when he looked up, willing him to look away before she had to. But he held her gaze intently, a budding smile playing at his lips. "I'm not a painting to peruse at your leisure, Waldorf."

Blair closed her mouth against the drunken giggle that threatened to escape, twisting her lips into a scowl instead as she looked to the elevator display. The speed the floors ticked down seemed painfully slow and she clenched her fingers in her skirt, counting the numbers one by one. She leant back against the mirrored walls, the glass cooling her flushed skin, closing her eyes to the slightly swimming room.

Everything came to a halt so abruptly she lost her footing, almost tumbling in a graceless mess at Dan's feet, but he grabbed her arms and held her steady. "The elevator stopped."

"I know you're the master of the obvious statement but really wouldn't it better saving your breath to call 911?"

He let go of her arms and fumbled for his phone, making a rueful face as he looked at the screen. "There's no cell coverage."

Blair withdrew her own phone from her purse, ignoring the no service signal. A sickeningly friendly voice on the line told her to 'please try again later'. After thrusting the useless device back into her bag, she jabbed one perfectly manicured fingernail into Dan's chest. "This is your fault."

He looked down at the finger still pressing against his shirt before meeting her eyes. "I don't see how. You're the one who threw a party during a hurricane."

"If you hadn't insisted I come with you. I'd still be safely upstairs and you'd be stuck here alone."

"And then you could have rung the emergency department to rescue me?"

"Hardly. I would have just taken the stairs."

Dan chuckled but, before he could reply, the lights flickered for a moment and died, plunging the close space into blackness. It was too dark for Blair to see even her hands before her face, though she stared uselessly at them, trying to control her growing sense of alarm.

"Don't panic, Blair." She felt resentful that he could read her thoughts so immediately. "There's bound to be an emergency generator. Just wait a moment."

He placed his hand on her arm and they both waited breathlessly for the light to come on or the elevator to move, but it stayed silent and dark. It was only the warm pressure of Dan's fingers against her skin that stopped her mind from exploring how it was exactly like she had always imagined a tomb to be. She grappled in her purse once more, withdrawing her phone to illuminate the room with a dim glow. "Nothing's happening."

"Give it time." He let go of her arm and slid down the wall, tugging at her skirt from the floor. "You should sit down."

"And you should stop mishandling my Marchesa."

"Have it your way." His tone became conversational as the light from her phone blinked off and the room turned to black once more. "You know, I read the other day that you're meant to lie on the floor if you're in a plummeting elevator. Apparently your body absorbs the shock better."

If Blair didn't feel so dizzy she would have kicked him, but the combination of her six inch heels and the number of martinis singing in her blood made her sink down beside him instead. The sleeve of his jacket just brushed against her bare skin and she let herself lean in closer, pressing against his arm in an effort to ground herself. "Was it really necessary to share that thought?"

Dan's voice sounded close by her ear. "No, it wasn't. It was just the only way I could think of getting you to sit down. This is kind of scary." He nudged her with his elbow. "I can start another disagreement to distract you, if you like. You can pick the topic."

"You're already using up too much air."

"Ah...now, there's a another thought. I'll tell you what, you worry about the oxygen and I'll think about the falling elevator."

"Shut up, Humphrey." She tried to make her reply cutting but the smile that quivered on her lips softened the words. It was almost fortunate he couldn't see her face. He took her at her word, staying silent, though she heard the catch of his breath as he swallowed his laugh.

The dark made it difficult to keep a sense of time. Blair was sure they had been sitting there for an hour but when she checked her phone again, not even fifteen minutes had passed. The dim light showed Dan had shut his eyes, his head pressed back against the wall, legs sprawled before him. Shadows played across his sharp cheekbones, deepening in the hollow of his eyes and the curve of his lips.

She tightened her fingers around her phone to switch it off, preferring the dark pressing against her, rather than the exposed reality of her situation. Focussing instead on the soft intake of Dan's breath beside her, Blair could feel the cocktails she had drunk blunting her thoughts, deconstructing them until they were just responses, no rationalisation at all. Sex had always been her preferred method of subduing her demons and Chuck's prolonged absence had left her with little release but her fingers. She felt a familiar warm pressure begin between her thighs and creep up her loins, the familiar maleness of the body leaning beside her unavoidable. In the warm closeness of the space, she could almost smell her arousal and she pressed her knees together in an attempt to control it.

It was the little sigh that Dan gave that led to her undoing, a sound of resignation that echoed through her, making her succumb to impulse. She couldn't stop herself from sliding her hands across to grasp his shirt, tugging his chest to hers so she could feel the warm musk of his breath against her face.

It was uncanny how his lips met her own, so precisely, even though she was blind to his movement. They were eager, his tongue dipping against her lips and tracing her teeth. She gripped his hair to pull his face closer to hers, tilting her head to welcome his mouth more fully and sinking against him.

Dan shifted onto his knees, fumbling at her skirt to find her thighs, pulling at them so she would straddle his. Her hands started working by touch and memory alone. Jacket, tie, shirt, belt, fly. Pushing them over his shoulders and down his hips so she could feel the warm heat of his skin against hers. He had a more difficult time of it, she was still fully clothed, only a little mussed from his clumsy handling as he searched the bodice of her dress for the fastening. He had no hope of finding it, such feminine intricacies were beyond his reckoning.

But she didn't reckon on Dan's wiles, and before she could assist him, his fingers had traced up the encouraging path of her garter belt, lifting her full skirts around her hips. She heard the gentle give of the seams as his other hand tugged the strapless bodice down, his mouth searching for the peak of her exposed nipple above the soft froth of chiffon and tulle pooling at her waist.

It was so dark Blair could almost feel the ghost of her sleeping mask against her face and the single thing that existed was her fantasy. It was the only time she let herself remember exactly how soft Dan's skin could be and how consuming his mouth. When he sank back against the wall, the pressure of his palms on her thighs pulling her with him, she settled over his hips. Already his erect length slid through the sodden lace between her legs and she tried to reach under her skirts to guide him closer, but always another layer of net met her searching hands. How he blindly navigated the ruffled layers, she couldn't know. When his fingers dipped under the lace edge of her underwear, she tugged at the delicate fabric, feeling it tear under her frustrated grip. And when they slid further, she felt it give entirely, trapping her hands in the mess of silk. It felt so illicit that she let out a groan, grinding down to trap his fingers in place between them, the slick pressure sparking a thrill of sensation through her.

Every rasp of his tongue lit a path up her neck. It was all limbs and heat and confusion, the shudder of his breath against her shoulder, his lips moving with words that only her loins understood. So sensitised by the absence of light that the swirl of his fingerprints almost felt as though they were branding her flesh.

His moist fingers cupped her ass as she pushed her hands against his chest, giving up her wrestle with the impediment of her skirts and just moving with the roll of his hips. The intake of his breath grew erratic as he pressed up convulsively, sliding through the wet cleft between her thighs again. It was a reckless kind of wantonness that made her shift, angling him closer and they both gave a gasp as he slipped inside her, so wet that he could thrust in to the hilt.

The absence of sight drew out all Blair's other senses and she clutched at his bare shoulders, hardly recognising the low moan that escaped from her lips. She leant forward, finding his mouth once more, feeling the full length of his torso pressed to her. His searching lips never left hers for long, always winding back in a torturous path that left her floundering.

The change of pace was inevitable. Fingers seeking blindly for the swift pucker of skin, the sharp exhale of breath. Blair couldn't control her growing shudder at the perfect rhythm of their hips, hoping Dan was too caught up in his own response to wonder at hers. She could't stop it, she couldn't want to. The agonising little peaks that made her body keep demanding and the warm slide of his body against hers that answered over and over again. She wanted to draw it out, the slow sweet throb that hovered in her belly. But even as she focused on it, it drew her in, the bucking of his hips beneath her taking her closer with every beat.

The elevator gave a jolt, leaving her feeling momentarily weightless, Dan's hips lifting with her, and the shock of adrenalin was enough to send her over. She bit her tongue, tasting blood, trying to stop the cry of release breaking from her, unprepared for the lights flickering on and his wide brown eyes catching hers. The habitual guardedness he always looked at her with now was gone, replaced by something altogether softer. But it was only before she blinked, blinded by the brightness and the still resounding pleasure that pulsed through her, and when she could focus again his eyes were closed.

Each swiftly descending number on the elevator display fell away like her own stomach. She peeled herself from his chest and stood up, trying to tug the ruin of her dress up to cover her bared breasts, feeling vulnerable under glare of the lights. Her efforts did little, all she could do was cover the damage with her coat, hiding the gaping bodice from sight, trying to tuck up the torn underskirt that dropped to the floor in uneven layers.

If Dan was as loathe to look at her as she was to him, she couldn't bring herself to find out. She could only throw glances at his swift movements as he pulled at his trousers, his fingers running through his curls so they stood in comic disarray. His discomposure at odds with the sheer abandon that had characterised him only minutes before.

He had just managed to tuck in his shirt tails when the elevator reached the ground floor and the doors opened to reveal the deserted lobby. But he didn't speak, just gathering his coat from where it lay discarded on the floor and placing his hand on her lower back to guide her through.

It was only when they had passed the curious doorman and stood under the awning that shielded them from the easing rain, that Dan looked at her, an unreadable tilt to his dark brow. "The storm's mostly passed."

She was so stunned by his trite comment that the words she had held on her tongue for the past minutes came loose, even though she had never intended to speak them aloud. Never intended to refer to what had just passed between them at all if possible. "So, was that for Serena too?"

He turned away to the street, a disarming twist to his lips. "No. That was for you."

Before she could ask him what he meant he had ducked into the rain, waving furiously at a passing cab. It pulled up to the kerb, sending a wash of water onto the sidewalk, drowning his shoes.

Something snagged in Blair's chest as he beckoned her over. He was already drenched, the persistent rain running in rivulets over his face. But he gave her an untroubled smile, holding out his hand toward her. It took hers in a strong grip, almost a handshake, except that he held it for too long. It was only when she felt a cold trickle of water down her neck that she broke the spell, ducking her head and sliding into the the back seat of the cab.

Dan's fingers touched his head in a half salute before he closed the door. "Well met, Waldorf. It was nice to do battle with you again."


	2. February 2024

**The following chapters are likely to leap about a bit as I don't want to reveal the story chronologically. I hope it's not confusing, please tell me if it is. The story is set firmly in canon, albeit all post finale (I think, so far as what I have plotted out, which could change!), despite the fact that season 6 still sits uncomfortably with me. I doubt I'll refer to GossipDan at all.**

**Thank you all for the lovely reviews. It's amazing how some words in response can spur one on to greater plotfullness, so please know how much I value them.**

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**2024 - London**

Heathrow was always heaving with travellers but the violent winter weather seemed to have made it come to a complete standstill. Crowds of people huddled inside the glass doors of the terminal, watching the empty cab rank with a growing sense of frustration.

Blair had been forced to go to London at least once a week during the planning of the Waldorf flagship store in Bond Street. It seemed an impossible task to staff competent enough to manage it without her careful management. As the date grew closer to the opening party, it felt as though she had been there more than she had been at home in Paris. The bitterly cold February weather didn't make the travel any easier.

Blair cursed the chilling breeze that kept coming through the automatic doors. The information desk had been unable to give her sufficient reason why no cars were arriving at the terminal. She checked her itinerary once more. The driver had been meant to pick her up on arrival but there had been no chauffeur waiting at the gates to meet her. Instead she was met by the news that storms had caused major traffic delays on the M25 and if she wanted to get to her hotel, it would be quicker to take the tube. Tube, subway, the name was immaterial, it was still the same haven of pestilence and crime, no matter what country it was in.

A particularly violent gust of wind blew though the door and snatched the piece of paper from Blair's hand. She cursed under her breath as it fluttered away. It was tempting to leave it, but she didn't even know the name of her hotel, so used to relaxing into the attention of a chauffeur or her personal assistant.

She dashed after it, dragging her luggage behind her. The itinerary was frustratingly elusive, teasing her by dropping to the floor until she had almost reached it and then rising on another gust of wind, as though it had life of it's own. But it eventually stopped, wrapped around the dark denim clad leg of a fellow traveller. She bent over, hoping to retrieve it before the man noticed but just as her fingers folded around it, he looked down at her and she froze in shock. "Dan?"

"Oh my God, Blair?"

She stood up in a rush, crushing the piece of paper in her hands. "What...what are you doing here?"

He smiled in a bewildered manner. "Do you mean Heathrow or London?"

Blair hardly knew, but it wouldn't do to let him see how rattled she was. "Either."

"I live here. And what about you? What brings you here?"

It took a second to recall exactly what she was doing. "I... I'm living in Paris but we're opening a store here."

Dan nodded slowly. "Wow, what are the chances of running into each other like this. How are you?"

"I'm well, though this appalling weather is literally screwing up my schedule." She waved the crumpled itinerary in the air as she spoke. "My driver's late."

"You know, it would have made more sense to just catch the tube, rather than taking a car."

"For you maybe. But I haven't built up the immunity to disease that you have, Humphrey. I prefer to wait."

"I'm glad, if you had I'd never have seen you." Dan chuckled, a bittersweet sound that went straight to her chest. "You don't know how happy it makes me that you haven't changed. It's really nice to see your face, Blair."

"I...It's good to see you too, Dan." It surprised her how much she meant the words.

Dan looked at his watch. "Damn, I wish I could stay and catch up properly but I have to run or I'll miss my plane." He leaned forward and Blair thought, with a kind of chill, that he was going to kiss her cheek, but instead he just leaned down to pick up his case. He did touch her arm though, and she could still feel the pressure of his fingers through the fabric of her coat as he stepped back on his heels to observe her. "Are you going to be ok waiting?"

"Of course, I'm sure my car will be here any minute."

"Ok, well, I guess this is it then." His movements were hesitant. "I meant what I said, Blair, it makes me happy to see you. I hope it's not so long next time."

The words came so genuinely that she could only nod her head, not trusting that her voice was capable of making sense. She instead just thrust out her hand and he took it in his own, his fingers firm against hers. His lips quirked in a familiar manner when he spoke again. "If you're here so often, we should maybe...no, forget it, let's leave it to chance." He let go of her hand and hoisted his bag to his shoulder. "Goodbye, Blair."

Blair watched Dan turn and walk away in a kind of daze. Seeing him had been the very last thing she could have expected and she hardly knew how to react. They hadn't spoken about anything personal, hardly anything at all. She knew he and Serena had divorced. She herself had dried her friend's many tears post their breakup, tucking her into bed after nights of excess to try and keep her from spiralling into another cycle of self destruction. But that had been four years before, and Blair had only been able to follow Dan since through his publications. No one, not even Nate, had seen him for the past few years.

His image still swam before her eyes. Dan always had the kind of face she knew would age well, and it gave her mixed feelings that he looked the way she had always imagined he would. His hair was as thick as ever, still growing over his brow in it's own wayward style, untainted as yet by grey. The only thing that had really changed was his voice, the obvious years in London rounding his vowels and smoothing the Brooklyn twang from his speech. She could wish it wasn't so different, feeling that the voice that would still whisper to her sometimes while she tried to sleep, wasn't his anymore.

Blair wasn't sure how long she had been standing there for, lost in reverie. A nudge at her shoulder drew her attention but the momentary scowl that had flashed to her lips faded as she realised it was Dan smiling again at her. "You're still here. My flight got delayed and I have hours to kill. Feel like getting a drink and catching up properly?"

Blair did feel like a drink. She had been feeling like she couldn't get to the mini bar in her hotel room fast enough. She eyed Dan thoughtfully though, not wanting to appear too eager. "Wouldn't you prefer to go home and get some sleep?"

"I live in Cambridge. The time it would take me to get home, I'd just have to turn around and come straight back again. There's a Hilton though, somewhere around this terminal, I can get a few hours later. But I need a nightcap first. Will you join me?"

She looked at her phone, but there were still no answering messages from her PA. "One drink won't hurt."

He creased his brow quizzically. "I hope not, but it would be worth it."

She wanted to make him elaborate on his words but he had already taken her bags, gesturing for her to follow him through the crowd toward the escalators. They walked together in silence, all the questions that had been bubbling on her lips falling mute. It wasn't until they had reached the concourse to the hotel that she found her voice again, though what she asked she could hardly care less about. "So, how's your family?"

"You hadn't heard?"

"Whatever it is, no, I haven't. I don't really keep up with the antics of the Humphrey clan."

"I guess you wouldn't." Dan gave a kind of snort. "It's funny how things keep going full circle. Dad and Lily are getting married. Again. It's the reason I'm flying out."

"Oh." Blair wondered why Serena hadn't told her that Lily and William had divorced again. It would be hurting her, she had been so delighted when they had reunited and now her mother's rekindled relationship with Rufus would drive a further wedge into any possibility of a future with Dan. She tried to push down the uncharitable sense of satisfaction the thought gave her, that Dan and Serena would be siblings once again. "I kind of always thought that would happen. Will Serena be there?"

"I don't think so. I think she's boycotting it in some kind of protest. I wish I didn't have to go either but both my Dad and Jenny made me promise."

"How is Jenny?" Blair didn't really need to ask about Dan's sister, her career had been impossible to ignore, but she felt she needed to keep talking to avoid his possible return questions about her own family life.

"I can't keep up with her, since she left Chloe and struck out on her own, she's been..."

"...touted the new Stella McCartney. Daughter of ageing rock icon makes good. Of course I know that, Dan, though how anyone through any stretch of the imagination could compare Rufus with Paul McCartney, I just don't see. But that doesn't tell me how she is."

"She's good, more than good I guess. She lives in London, as you probably know as well, but I don't get to see her too much, she's so busy. She has a young daughter I hardly know." He gave a half smile. "My niece is probably the person I'm looking forward to seeing the most in New York."

Blair fell silent once more. She wanted to ask him how he was, what he was doing, if he was happy. But she worried that if she did it would open up a far more personal vault of her own information.

Their approach to the hotel covered her silence, the concierge directing them to the bar after Dan had booked a room. Blair slid into a leather upholstered stool, the low round tables seeming too intimate. Dan ordered them both a double of whisky, but she stopped the barman before he could pour them. "We need to drink something a bit more celebratory. Can you change that to a bottle of Cristal?" The barman nodded at her as she turned to Dan. "It was always Lily's favourite and I don't feel like whisky is really appropriate to toast her with."

Dan raised his eyebrow but didn't question the change. She was pleased he didn't protest. The smell of whisky had started to make Blair feel sick to the stomach, so ever present on Chuck's breath it felt like it would smother her. She raised her champagne flute. "To Lily and Rufus."

Dan clinked his glass against hers. "Indeed. May it be the last marriage for both of them. I think this one makes it ten between them?"

Blair chuckled. "Yes, but does it count that Lily married each of her husbands twice?"

He returned her smile. "Her romantic history is so convoluted, I can barely follow it. "How's Henry?"

Blair pictured her son. Her studious, quiet son, who confounded Chuck with his focus and his passion for nature, making Blair wonder what kind of changeling she had given birth to. "He's well." She gave a laugh. "We went to Africa last month for his birthday. He's been pestering me since he was seven to see a lion, the ones in the zoo wouldn't do, you see." She took up her drink once more, rolling the flute between her palms. "I thought he would grow out of it, so I promised him we would go on safari when he was ten. But it backfired, as of course you know my bargains often do. There was no way I could get out of it."

"Did Chuck enjoy it?"

Blair felt her smile become more fixed. "Oh, Chuck had to be in New York, so it was just Henry and I in the end." She tried to divert. "It was probably for the best, can you imagine Chuck's bow ties making a sensation in Botswana?"

"I would have thought he'd go with a colonial theme. I can't believe he missed the opportunity to wear a Pith helmet."

Blair let out a breathy laugh. "I know, it's unthinkable, isn't it?"

Dan's eyes creased, making her notice how laugh lines had started to settle around his lids. They softened as they caught hers. "And how did you like it?"

She took a breath, remembering the magnificent isolation she had found herself in. "I loved it. I felt like Karen Blixen." Dan's smile widened. "It was magnificent, Dan, you've never seen such a thing as the sky lit up by those stars at night. I hardly knew they could look like that. I'd never been so far from a city before." Blair felt herself rambling but, other than Dorota, she hadn't been able to express herself to someone who might understand how thrilling she found it.

"I didn't think it was possible for you to go more than ten miles from a Chanel store without breaking out in a rash." Dan's lips twisted. "I wish I could've seen that. Did Henry get to see his lion?"

"He did, and I hoped it would quench his passion for predators." She pursed her lips. "But of course it didn't, he is my son after all. Apparently, we're going to Venezuela next, in pursuit of jaguars."

Dan's lips had been quivering with amusement at her words and her own mouth curved into a grin as he gave a choke of laughter. "Now, that I just can't believe."

She raised her brow. "Neither did I, but he's done all the research and he just presented me a 40 page document on his findings, bound no less, to inspire me. I swear, he's better at desk top publishing than my marketing department." Blair felt her pride in her son glowing as she thought more on him. "I have it here. Do you want to see it?"

"I'd like nothing more." Blair reached into her bag, rummaging for the document. She looked at the picture on the cover before passing it over. Henry had photoshopped a picture of them both grinning into a dense jungle landscape, so realistically it was almost impossible to guess it was fake.

Dan looked closely at the cover. "He looks like you. I can't see any resemblance to Chuck at all."

"Everyone says that." She didn't elaborate on how Chuck resented that their son looked nothing like him, Henry's black curls and pale skin entirely reflecting Waldorf characteristics.

"Are they close?"

"Who?"

"I meant Chuck and Henry, but I'm sorry, it's none of my business."

Blair sighed. "It's ok. They used to be but, as Henry gets older, Chuck finds it harder and harder to relate to him. I think he's more like Harold than either Chuck or I. He's so single minded about his passions. So inquisitive." She hadn't meant to be so open about her son and husband's strained relationship, but there was something about the dark eyes before her that drew the information from her. "I had hoped the safari would help them reestablish something, but..." Her voice trailed off and she let Dan draw his own conclusions from her words.

"Henry sounds a lot like you."

"What do you mean?"

"I never knew Harold very well, but I always felt you were more like him than your mother"

"But everyone thinks I'm exactly like Eleanor."

Dan looked up and met her eyes. "I never found her passionate and inquisitive. Maybe single minded though." He fell silent as he flipped through the pamphlet, chuckling quietly over the impressive breadth of research. "I can't believe he put this together. How old did you say he was?"

Blair smiled proudly. "Ten. They want to put him up a grade at school."

Dan's brow creased. "I didn't think he was that old."

She drew a breath, words rushing from her mouth, feeling lucky that maths had never been Dan's forte. "Well, almost ten. But sometimes I think he's older than me."

The phone in her bag vibrated as if on cue and she rummaged for it, thankful for the distraction. Finally there was a message from her PA, but all it informed her was that the tunnel to enter the airport was completely cut off and her driver was unable to pick her up until the severe weather alert had passed. Blair made a face as she turned back to Dan. "Even my PA is advising me to take the tube. What is it with Londoners?"

"I can escort you if you like. I'll easily get back in time to make my flight."

"You do realise you're asking me to break my lifelong commitment to never having to take public transport."

"You catch planes."

"Yes, but first class doesn't count." She tilted her head, considering her options. "I think I'll take a room here instead. It really makes no difference where I sleep now, all I want to do is collapse into bed."

Dan looked at his phone before replying. "You know, my plane leaves in around four hours, it doesn't really make much sense for us both to take a room."

"I'm not sleeping on your sofa, Dan. Those days are behind me."

"You can have the bed. I doubt I'll get any sleep now anyway." He smiled at her before waving at the barman for the bill, handing over his credit card before she could reach for her purse.

It felt a little dangerous to be alone with him in the elevator and his silence told her that maybe he was thinking the same thing. But then again, perhaps he was thinking of his girlfriend or his family and not about her at at all. He didn't speak until they were standing before the open door of his room. "You know, maybe I should go. I can nap on a bench in the terminal for a while. I don't want to disturb you."

The words he spoke had been hovering on her own tongue, but the minute he voiced them she demurred. "You're here now and it looks like a perfectly comfortable sofa."

"Doesn't this remind you of something?" Blair looked at him closely, unable to work out what he meant. "Airports and hotels?"

"Oh," she laughed. "Of course, I'm not starting an argument with you, if that's what you mean."

"Do you know what?" Dan looked at his watch, "I've been in your company for exactly two hours and twenty two minutes and we haven't, as yet, had the slightest disagreement." The curl of his eyebrow matched his lips. "Is that a first?"

"God, that feels like a lifetime ago. And to think I'd almost forgotten that whole escapade." She put her hands on her hips. "I'm not thanking you for reminding me. You don't know how many hours I spent with my shrink to get over that."

"I think you might have forgotten who you're talking to." He leaned toward her then, pressing his fingers against her shoulder. "I remember, Blair."

Even though his touch was fleeting, it felt like it burned through the thin silk of her blouse. She turned abruptly away, kicking off her shoes and opening the refrigerator to survey the minibar. "Will you mix me a drink?"

"I thought you wanted to sleep?"

"I can do that after. Besides, we've been talking about my life for the past hour, I think it's time you spilled something about yours."

"There's nothing to tell really." He came to stand beside her, taking a mini bottle of Moët from the fridge. "Is this ok? Not too pedestrian for your tastes?"

"It's fine. Stop being elusive and just humour me. How long have you been in the UK?"

He chuckled as he poured the champagne, adding a touch of cognac from the tiny bottle he found on a shelf. "A few years now. I went to Cambridge originally on a fellowship but when an opportunity came up on staff, I applied for it on a whim. I hardly knew why I wanted it. I just didn't want anything else at the time, I guess."

"But you're a New Yorker, don't you miss it?"

He passed her a glass and sat on the sofa, slipping his shoes off before answering. "I did, seeing you has made me realise I still do, but I suppose liked the change of pace I found here."

She sat down beside him, her knees almost touching his. "And what was that change of pace like? Blonde or brunette?"

Dan smiled. "Neither, she was a charming redhead."

"And is this charmer still around?"

He shook is head resignedly. "No, I think it was too soon after Serena and I split to ever come to anything. She went to Australia in the end. We're still in touch though. She's probably the first ex girlfriend I've ever managed to maintain a friendship with."

"What about now? Are you seeing anyone?"

"No, not really. You're very inquisitive."

"Its my nature, you said so yourself." His evasive words weren't explicit enough. She wanted to know him, get a glimpse inside his life at least. "Not really or not at all?"

"Not at all." He looked up at her then, holding her gaze for a long moment before continuing. "I still find it difficult to see anyone else, not while you're sitting here before me, anyway." Dan's cryptic words made her catch her breath. "I'm sorry, I really should go. I'm letting the champagne get the better of me."

He placed his glass on the coffee table and moved to stand up but, before he could get to his feet, she took his arm, holding him at her side. "Don't go just yet."

"Why?"

"I don't want you to." Blair blinked slowly, willing him to come nearer.

He didn't move, just stopping, arrested by her words, his eyes flitting between her eyes and her lips. "I don't think it's a good idea."

She tilted her head, swaying closer to him. "Of course it's not. But when did we ever have any of those?"

The slow curve of Dan's lips made her heart quicken as they leaned toward hers. "We never did, did we?"

"No. Fools on parade." She could feel his breath, tantalisingly close, but she didn't want to be the first to move, showing him how eager she was. "That's us."

They remained still, the prolonged moment making the blood rush to her cheeks as his mouth hovered before hers. She knew by his hooded eyes and the tension on his lips that he was as affected as she was, but still he didn't act upon it. Everything so taut between them that it felt like the moment could just continue forever, the too and fro of eternal fascination.

So when he did move, she was barely ready for it. His hand curled around her neck, mouth enveloping hers before she could draw full breath. It felt good, like she had just been given a gift she hadn't ever admitted she wanted, but now she held it in her hands she couldn't let it go. He sighed against her, opening his lips so his tongue could brush against hers, his palm sliding down her back to press against her waist.

It only took a moment before her fingers recklessly moved to his fly, pulling at the buckle, but he pulled back and closed his hand over hers. "Patience, Waldorf."

She wanted to remind him that they had no time, it wasn't just the nearing departure of his plane that restricted them, their whole history held them back. The pressure of his lips at her neck dispelled the thought, though, and all she could concentrate on was the flick of his tongue, the graze of his teeth as they followed the languorous path of his fingers down the front of her blouse. She felt as though she were trapped in an hourglass and each passing second dropped away to be mourned forever.

He looked up at her as his fingers paused at her top button. "Do you really want this?"

"I do. I want it even if you don't."

"I want you. Still. It never went away." Constancy. It was only when he said the words that she realised that it was what she had always sought. Someone who would be there when she needed them, or wanted them, just because.

She wished she was wearing something more provocative than the basic cotton underwear that Dan uncovered, but he didn't appear to find it any less absorbing than if she'd been wearing La Perla. The hot mist of his breath dampened the fabric over her nipple and she arched forward, encouraging him to take it between his lips. They curved into a smile before they obliged her.

His hands wrapped possessively around her ribcage as his mouth moved lower, dipping into her navel. She done to much travel to bother dressing up for it anymore, though she'd never sink to the depths of sweats. The simple Missoni skirt she wore slipped easily over her hips, and her underwear with it, leaving her bare to his exploring fingers. For all his words of patience, he didn't leave her waiting, instead sliding to the floor and pressing her legs apart to close his mouth over her, using his thumbs to expose her completely to the touch of his tongue.

Blair couldn't have controlled the sound she made, sinking back into the cushions of the sofa to lose herself in his resolute lips and the way he kept looking up at her to catch her reaction. When her response grew too overwhelming to bear and all she could think of was the length of his slim body pressed against hers, she tugged at his shoulders, pulling him up so the wet salt of his lips was against hers. Feeling the ardent pressure of his hips as he knelt between her thighs.

Dan stood up, holding her legs close around him as he staggered across the room, collapsing under her on the bed, his lips never leaving hers. She was clad only in her bra, though he remained mostly dressed but it was easy to divest him of his long sleeved knit shirt, finally managing to undo his fly and push his jeans down over his hips.

She pushed him back against the coverlet, sliding down onto him aggressively. The surprised grunt he gave turned into a gasp, giving up his struggle with her bra and just gazing up as she started to rock against him.

"Shouldn't we be a bit more care..." Her mouth cut him off, disregarding his words and just opening over his as she moved against him. When she knew she had silenced him completely, she let up, leaning back and widening her thighs so she could grind her pelvis down against his, feeling the wanton pulse between her legs flaring through her. Before she could ride it out, he slipped his hands over her buttocks and flipped them both over, pressing her knees up so he could slide even deeper.

He kissed her deeply as his hands slipped to her hips, pulling her down the bed to brace his feet against the floor. The way he drove into her forced a moan from her lips as she met the unrelenting thrusts, lifting off the bed as wrapped her legs around his waist. His hands pressed into the bed on each side of her head, looking down at her with eyes so dark they blanked out every other thought. She could only grip the skin of his back, feeling her fingertips slide against the slick surface, marking little crescents with her nails where she clung. The thread of pleasure she had been following suddenly pulled her in, leaving her panting and helpless. He seemed to swell larger as he followed her, his last thrusts so deep she felt her whole body pulse in time with them, trying to take him further until his whole body shuddered and he let out a such a sound that she thought the whole floor could surely hear.

Dan briefly dropped against her before rolling onto his back, their still tangled legs half hanging off the bed. She followed him as he moved, pressing a kiss against his chest before laying her head on the spot, trying to tell him with her body what her lips could not. He seemed to understand, wrapping his arms around her, his hands splaying across her back as he tucked her into his side. Her sleepy eyes started to drop, every blink taking longer as she listened to the slowing pace of his heart.

Just as her mind started to drift, a phone made a message alert. Dan made a sound of resignation. "That will be my flight announcement. I should go." He didn't move though, only tracing his fingers up her spine in a path that made her quiver.

"Dan, when you said before that you had never kept an ex as a friend, we could be friends." She spoke into the skin of his chest, the words so muffled they were barely distinguishable.

"I don't think friends really do what we just did."

"But we could try, we have been before and...and I'd like to have a friend here."

"Blair, I can't help but want to see you again, if that's what you're asking me." She lifted her head and met his eyes as he spoke. His look was solemn but he held her gaze unwaveringly. "But I've never been your friend, never will be. When I like you, I like you too much for it to be that simple. I can't believe it's ever going to be any different. Even now, after not seeing you for 4 years, it's still exactly the same."

Blair buried her head back into his shoulder, clenching her eyes against the light that suddenly seemed blinding. "Stay. Don't catch that plane."

"I have to." He rolled over onto his side and pressed a kiss to her tender lips. "I'll only just get there in time as it is."

"Use the weather as an excuse. You've seen them get married before, surely once is enough?"

He shook his head regretfully. "I can't, I wish I could but I just can't. I promised. But I'll be back in three days. Will you still be here?"

Dan's hand traced across her cheek as he waited for her answer. "Yes."


End file.
